Me'res (Hcb. id., C;^"?, from the Sanscrit meresh, worthy, accoriling to Benfey, p. 200; Sept. Alf/off, but
MERI
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most copies omit ; Vulg. Mares), one of the seven sa- traps or viziers of Xerxes (Esth. i, 14). B.C. 483.
Meri, Francois, a French Benedictine monk, was born at Vierzon in 1675. He died Oct. 18, 1723, in the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Ma^ai, province of Berrj-. Meri published a work entitled Discussion a-itique et iheolorjique des Remarques de M. sui- le didionnaire de Moreri, under the nom de plume AF. Thomas (1720). He has sometimes been mistaken for Dom Philippe Bil- louet, his contemporary, who never published any work.
Meriadec, St., a French prelate, whose name in Latin is Mereadocus, was born iu Vannes about AD. 605. He was a lineal descendant of the ancient kings of Ar- morica, and was brought up at the court of Joel HI, king of Brittany. He was ordained a priest by Hingueten, the bishop of Vannes. and afterwards retired into the waste and sterile country of Stival, near Pontivy. At the death of Hingueten, the clergy and the laity alike with one acclaim appointed Meriadec his legitimate suc- cessor, St. Meriadec is mentioned in the Vita Sancto- rum by BoUandus (ii, 36). It is not known when he was canonized, but his name is still much venerated in Brit- tany, where many churches and chapels have been con- secrated under the inspiration of his memory. He died in Vannes in the year 666.
Merian, Hans Berxhard, a noted philosopher, was born in 1723 at Lichstall, in the canton of Basle, Avhere his father was a minister. After finishing an academi- cal course of philosophical and philological studies, he became private tutor of a young Dutch nobleman. At the recommendation of M. lie IMaupertuis, Frederick the Great called him to Berlin. Here he became a member of the Academy of Sciences, and soon distinguished him- self so much that in 1771 he was nominated director of the philosophical department, and in 1797 (after For- mey's death) secretary of the academy. Of his numer- ous philosophical works, some of which show superior merits, we mention the following: Diss, de auiochiria (Basle, 1740): — Discours sur la metajihysique (Basle, 1766) : — Systeme du monde (Bouillon, 1770): — Examen de Vhistoire naturelle de la religion par Mr. Hume, ou Von refute les erreurs, etc. (Amsterdam, 1779). Numer- ous philosophical essays of his are printed in the " Mem. de I'Acad. des Sciences ii Berlin," e. g. Mem. sur Vapjier-
ception de sa propre existence ; Mem. sur Vapperception consideree relativement aux idees, ou sur Vexistence des idees dans Vdme (vol. v) ; Reflexions philos. sur la ressem- blance (vol. xii) ; Examen d'une question concernant la liberte (vol. ix) ; Parall'ele de deux principes de psycholo- gie (vol. xiii) ; Sur le se7is moixil (vol. xiv) ; Sur le de- sir (vol. xvi) ; Sur la crainte de la mort ; Sur le mepris de la mort; Sur le suicide (vol. xix) ; Sur le duree et sur Vintensite du pilaisir et de la peine (vol. xii). For further details, see Fred. AnciUon, Eloge historique de J. B. Merian, etc. (Berlin, 1810),
Mer'ibah (Heb. Merihah', !l3'i'17D, quarrel, or " strife,'" as in Gen. xiii, 8 ; Numb, xxvii, 14), the desig- nation of two places, each marked by a spring.
1. (Sept. \ow6pi]aiQ ; Vulg. joins with the preceding name in one, tentatio, Exod. xvii, 7 ; but in Psa. Ixxxi, 8, XoiSopia, contradictio.) The latter of the two names given by IMoses to the fountain in the desert of Sin, ou the western gulf of the Red Sea, which issued from the rock which he smote by the divine command, the other equivalent name being Massah; and the reason is as- signed, " because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they did there tempt the Lord" (Exod. xvii, 1-7). This spot is only named once again by this title (Psa. Ixxxi, 8). The general locality is designated by the name Eephidim (ver. 1, 8). See Exodk. The monks of Sinai still pretend to show the identical rock from which Moses brought forth the water (Olin's Trav- els, i, 416). Stephens describes it as an isolated stone, about twelve feet high, with several artificial gashes from which water trickles (Trav. i, 285). Burckhardt, also, wlio was one of the first travellers that critically examined the locality, thinks it bears indubitable marks of art, yet one of the later travellers, D. Roberts, holds that the orifice has been naturally formed by the oozing of water for a long period (Holy Land, Egypt, etc., vol. iii, pi. iii). The rock rests isolated where it has fallen from the face of the mountain. It is of red granite, fifteen feet long, and ten feet wide. Down the front of the block, iu an oblique direction, runs a seam, twelve or fourteen inches wide, of apparently a softer material; the rock also has ten or twelve deep horizontal crevices, at nearly equal distances from each other. There are also other apertures upon its surface from which the
VI.— H
'The Kock of Moses."
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water is said to have issued — in all about twenty in number, and lying nearly in a straight line around the three sides of the stone, and for the most part ten or twelve inches long, two or three inches broad, and from one to two inches ilcep; but a few are as deep as four inches. Tlie rock is highly revered both by the Chris- tians and IJedouins. It lies in the valley called Wady el-Lejah, in the very highest region of the Sinai group, running up narrow and choked with fallen rocks between the two i)eaks that claim to be the Mount of jMoscs, and contains the deserted convent of El-Abein (^Kitto, Picl. Bible, ad loc).